“China is changing extremely rapidly and, at the same time, becoming more and more important to the American economy and world security. The Asia Center is pleased to join the Patterson School in bringing Sheryl Wu Dunn and many other China experts to UK. We invite all people interested in contemporary China to attend her address and the rest of the conference.”

-- Kristin Stapleton,
director,
UK Asia Center

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 7, 2003) -- The University of Kentucky’s Asia Center together with the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce will host Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Sheryl Wu Dunn at 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 9, in Memorial Hall. Wu Dunn is the keynote speaker for the China in the World Conference, which will run through Oct. 11 on the UK campus. Her address is free and open to the public.

Wu Dunn spent more than a decade as a foreign correspondent for The New York Times in Japan and China. She was born and raised in New York City and graduated from Cornell University in 1981. Wu Dunn also holds a master’s of business administration degree from Harvard University and a master’s of public administration degree in international affairs from Princeton University. She worked for several major newspapers before joining The New York Times as a correspondent in Beijing. In 1990, she and her husband, Nicholas D. Kristof, were awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Journalism for international reporting for their coverage of China’s Tiananmen Square democracy movement, becoming the first married couple ever to win a Pulitzer for journalism. Their China coverage also won the George Polk Award for foreign reporting.

“China is changing extremely rapidly and, at the same time, becoming more and more important to the American economy and world security,” said Kristin Stapleton, director of the Asia Center at UK. “The Asia Center is pleased to join the Patterson School in bringing Sheryl Wu Dunn and many other China experts to UK. We invite all people interested in contemporary China to attend her address and the rest of the conference.”

Wu Dunn and her husband have co-authored several books including “Thunder from the East: Portrait of a Rising Asia” (2000), and “China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power” (1994). Recently, she has become the anchor of the The New York Times/Discovery Channel cable show, “Page One.” In addition to her position at The New York Times, Wu Dunn sits on the advisory council of Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School. She is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Cornell University.

“Sheryl Wu Dunn is one of The New York Times’ best Asia hands, and we are very pleased that she will be kicking off what we anticipate will be a really terrific program on China’s role in the world,” said Michael Desch, director of the Patterson School. “My colleagues and I are also really excited to be working with the Asia Center on this conference and look forward to cooperating with them on other events in the future.”

Wu Dunn will be discussing China’s place in the contemporary world. For further information about her talk and for more details on the China in the World Conference, contact the UK Asia Center at (859) 257-7253, Asia.Center@uky.edu, or the Patterson School at (859) 257-4667, bpolk@uky.edu.